


A Whole New World

by hunenka



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Stanford Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-19
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2019-02-03 00:11:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12737112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunenka/pseuds/hunenka
Summary: It takes a while, getting used to being on his own.





	A Whole New World

**Author's Note:**

> Written for #celebratingdean week 2: Stanford era.

It takes a while, getting used to being on his own.

Not the single rooms; Dean only asks for a double a few times before it sinks in. He can use the money he spares that way better than having an extra bed for a wishful  _just in case_. And he certainly doesn't need any reminders of the fact that they left him all alone.

Hunting solo doesn’t take as much getting used to as he thought it would either. Firstly, Dad only sends Dean on run-of-the-mill hunts he doesn’t want to waste time on himself (and Dean doesn’t tell him about the more dangerous ones he just runs across). And secondly, it’s kind of a sink or swim situation – you either get good at watching your own back fast, or you get dead. Dean gets good.

What takes some time getting used to is the choices. How to spend spare time, what food to order, which channel to watch, which tape to play in the car. It’s all up to Dean now, and he doesn’t know what to do with it at first.

Well, that’s not true. At first, he doesn’t even realize that he’s still making these decisions as if he wasn’t on his own. Choosing a diner that advertises great salads to appease Sam. Turning off the TV while cleaning his guns because Dad doesn’t approve of mixing fun with work. Playing a riskier game of poker or pool to win enough money to get all three of them through another week. Leering at waitresses so that Sam and Dad would share an annoyed sigh, maybe the last thing they agreed on before Sam left.

Now, it's all up to Dean. And the possibilities are endless. Or as endless as it gets in the backwater towns Dean usually travels through. But even those tiny, God-forgotten places sometimes hold hidden treasures, entire new worlds that Dean had no idea about.

Dean's universe grows, gets bigger.

Sometimes, Dean gets lonely.

Other times, Dean thinks as he joins the large crowd waiting in line for the ‘Biggest Star Trek convention in the Midwest’, it’s pretty damn awesome.

 

 

 


End file.
